Student Consultant RoleWe work with some of brightest minds in some of the most reputable universities around the US. Students involved in DSO obtain the rare opportunity to dive right in to solving real-world business problems and have a significant impact on DSO’s partners and the communities that those partners serve. Students are put in a front role where what they say, do, and deliver actually matters and can potentially make or break a partner’s future success.

Why should a student join DSO?

Real work experience (structured like an internship), including portfolio-building deliverables

Create an impact in the development realm

Get mentored by professionals in industries you are interested in.

References and referrals from clients and professionals

Form a tight and lasting network

Corporate partnerships provide explicit interview possibilities

Convert development passion into a career

What will I do for DSO?

Students get a chance to work with professionals and gain industry connections and impacting experience

Our students spend a large amount of time as individual contributors during an engagement

Projects are semester-long; may receive course credit

Projects are geared towards students’ skill set and give them the opportunity to get relevant hands-on experience.

DSO is a meritocracy and as students prove their skill they will continue to get increased responsibility

All positions are volunteer and unpaid unless otherwise noted. Send us an email if you have questions.

Testimonials

Working with DSO has been an unparalleled learning opportunity to apply business skills and classroom knowledge to help nonprofit clients. And perhaps more importantly, it has provided me the chance to grow as a leader and develop deeper connections with a group of like-minded individuals passionate about international development. Through working with mentors who are experts in their fields to collaborating with visionary nonprofit CEOs, I have been able to make a tangible impact and take my leadership and business capabilities to the next level. DSO takes you beyond the classroom, beyond Silicon Valley – teaching you how to develop and apply your skills to make a difference globally. I cannot recommend it enough.

Lauren Swartz

DSO provides one of the most engaging and interactive learning opportunities for high-achieving students interested in sharpening and refining their business acumen. Whether or not you want to enter the consulting industry after graduation, DSO places you in the front seat and presents you with real-world business and technology problems with emerging nonprofit organizations with continuous mentorship and guidance from extremely knowledgeable professionals. You have the unique opportunity to work under professional volunteers who have excelled in their field and are willing to shape and mold you into a more intelligible individual, one who can assess and provide innovative solutions to key, underlying factors when presented with a business problem. DSO has immensely helped me establish positive relationships with companies especially during internship interviews, as many recruiters are impressed by students who have taken a unique interest to gain concrete consulting experience while they are still in school. DSO provides an extremely exclusive chance for you to broaden their scope of knowledge and undergo a course of professional and intellectual development that can only benefit in the future.